The eccentric writer and renowned gay icon, Quentin Crisp, died yesterday in Manchester, where he was due to begin touring in a one-man show. Manchester police said he had been found unconscious at a house in the city and there were no suspicious circumstances regarding his death.
The renowned personality - made famous by his 1968 book, The Naked Civil Servant - will be best remembered for his razorsharp wit and enigmatic style. In a recent interview with the London Times, he said how he would like his funeral: "No flowers, no candles, no long faces standing around in the rain staring down into a hole in the ground while someone drones on about how wonderful I was. I'd rather be shuffled off. Just drop me into one of those black plastic bags and leave me by the trash can."
He said also that this trip to England would likely be his last. "I can't imagine I will feel strong enough to make the journey again." The self-proclaimed "stately-homo" did not hide his distaste for his country of birth which he referred to as a "merciless place".
He was born Denis Pratt in Surrey on Christmas Day, 1908, before going on to become a familiar face in London's gay district Soho through his early adulthood. It was in New York, however, that he eventually settled, becoming one of the city's best-loved "legal aliens".
Over the course of his life, he took on several careers, from typography to prostitution, but it was his flair and intellect that would win him notoriety. He suffered innumerable threats and beatings during his early life for his open homosexuality, and went on to become a leading gay campaigner. An icon of unrepentant gay identity, many feel that it was his very being rather than his work that did most to make homosexuality more acceptable in the eyes of society.
His close friend, Mr Patrick Newley, said yesterday that Mr Crisp would still be alive if he had chosen not to undertake the tour. "I am very sorry indeed to hear of his death and sadly shocked because, when I spoke to Quentin roughly two or three weeks ago in New York, he was clearly not happy about coming over for the tour. At his age it was too much . . .
"He had been approached basically because it would be the last time he would appear in England. But it had struck me that he was not keen on it at all, after all he was coming up to his 91st birthday. Perhaps well-meaning people had approached him, but Quentin could never really say no, he found it very hard."
Quentin Crisp was found early yesterday morning in a house on Claude Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, which a Manchester Theatre spokesman said belonged to a "friend of the theatre".